Search

The original stage curtain (1909-1915) from the Nippon Kan Theatre in Seattle.

While my brother was in town for the 4th of July weekend, he made a joke about creating a #BringBackAWritersPurpose social media campaign. My blog about books, authors, adventures, and any other ideas that popped in my mind, has been dormant.

On New Years Eve (was that already seven months ago?!), my husband made a suggestion to read less, write more. Which if you’re a Hamilton fan, you’re reading this in Aaron Burr’s voice. It’s now well into the second half of 2017 and I’ve read 35 books while writing nothing (excluding work duties).

So, she’s back! Me, and A Writer’s Purpose! And we have quite a bit to catch up on. Of course, it all relates to books. So for the at least four family members who follow this, enjoy…

Most recently, a group of gals from my book club spent an afternoon in Seattle to take a private book tour of Jamie Ford’s novels through the Wing Luke Museum. The tour took us to various historical locations in the International District that are included in the Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet and Songs of Willow Frost.

Bitter and Sweet is a story that takes place in Seattle during World War II. When Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps, many families stored their personal belongings underneath the Panama Hotel. Today, many of those belongings remain unclaimed underneath the hotel. The highlight of the tour was catching a glimpse of those possessions, along with eating lunch at the oldest Chinese restaurant in the city.

My local library’s annual literary event, Pierce County READS, selected author Mary Roach this year. The nonfiction writer takes complicated subjects and conducts extremely hands-on research to better understand and relay the subjects to her readers.

This year, the entire county was encouraged to read Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War. One of my very best friends Tami (we like to read and watch about 95 percent of the same things) and I attended the author event for an interesting Q and A with Roach. I have since added Stiff to my to-read list to learn more about human cadavers (thank you Tami for the book gift!).

Back in January, I joined my friends Tricia and Sarah for a early preview of the new PBS Masterpiece Classic, Victoria. Sarah and I did these special preview events during the Downton Abbey run, so it was a neat experience to see a new show before the rest of the land did.

The first season of the show was great, and the trailer of season two looks promising. The show’s writer is also the author of the book of the same name, and is worth reading if you’re like me and obsessed with British royals.

Now, to flashback all the way to November: My BFF Melissa and I attended an Anna Kendrick author event to promote her then-new book, Scrappy Little Nobody. Kendrick is hilarious and it was a short but fun event. I laughed at least 10 times. I probably rank it second to the Rainn Wilson book event we attended a year previously.

Whew! Now that you’re caught up on the last nine months of my literary life, I’m better set up to share with you books and adventures as they come.